By Jimmy Baracia
I’m sure we can all recall that feeling of walking into the SATs. Your hands are clammy, you are racking your brain trying to recall everything you had learned in math that year. You sit down and your feet bounce against the linoleum floors, avoiding the thought of the exam. Your instructors start handing out large pamphlets and you fiddle with the No. 2 pencil beside it.
“Start now,” the instructor would announce and you would open the pamphlet. This was it.
And then none of it even mattered because COVID-19 hopped in the picture and no school required a standardized test score with the application.
I have always despised standardized testing. I am convinced that they are my own personal seventh circle in hell. With how awful the COVID-19 pandemic was, the abolishment of standardized test scores was a huge step in the right direction — and I fear without the pandemic this decision would never have happened.
Of course, though, good things never last and it appears that the world of academia may be bringing them back starting with Dartmouth, which announced just mere days ago that they will be reinstating the policy for the class of 2029.
Why?
According to Dartmouth, “The finding that standardized testing can be an effective tool to expand access and identify talent was unexpected, thought-provoking, and encouraging.” To say that this is entirely incorrect would be a disservice. Of course, standardized tests provide an opportunity for universities to find apt students. However, to ignore the faults and stains and long history of standardized test scores is criminal.
Standardized tests are biased. Of course, we all know that, but do we really know that? Standardized tests are good for the privileged. Rosales and Walker explained, “There is a clear correlation, for example, between test scores and property values.” The more money an individual has, they are able to get better access to education, resources, opportunities, and additional test help, that those without are not able to afford. In turn, this increases their test scores exponentially; and those without miss out severely and their test scores, consequently, suffer.
In short: money talks.
Besides the economic bias of standardized testing, they are just not good for the mental health of anybody. Students, teachers, parents, you name it.
Tatter wrote, “What they found is that, on average, students had 15 percent more cortisol in their systems the homeroom period before a standardized test than on days with no high-stakes testing. Students who showed the largest variations in cortisol between testing and non-testing weeks tended to perform worse on tests than expected given their classwork and performance on non-high-stakes tests, among other measures. Cortisol spikes weren’t the only culprit; some students’ cortisol dropped on testing days, which was also associated with lower performance.”
The pressure that these tests bring on are enough for students testing grades to suffer, as Tatter explained students who had intense cortisol spikes performed worse as opposed to those with more balanced levels. When we see students who have cortisol drops (instead of increases), they tend to perform worse as well. It is implied that those who do best are the ones with more balanced levels of cortisol but that level must increase from your average “non-testing” day.
Education is turning to “teaching to the test.” Teachers emphasize and focus on lessons that will likely pop up on standardized tests so that their students are successful. However, many of these test taking “skills” are not transferable to other aspects of a students life and thus they lose out on necessary education. Your life is not one big test nor should you treat it like one — and I don’t think I really need to be telling you this but if you’re going through life thinking to yourself, “I don’t know what the answer is so I’ll just go with ‘C,’” then we might have bigger problems… especially if you’re a medical professional. We should not be measuring our worth based on a number — nor should we encourage the youth to do the same. It is demeaning and belittling.
There are far more important things.
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